Alleged Gunman’s Wife Worked at Nursing Home

Tuesday

Mar 31, 2009 at 5:26 AM

The motive for Sunday’s shooting, which killed seven elderly patients, remained unclear.

SHAILA DEWAN

CARTHAGE, N.C. — The man accused of killing eight people on Sunday morning at a nursing home here may have chosen the building as his target because his estranged wife was working there when the shootings occurred, officials said on Monday.

“We’re certainly looking into the fact that it may be domestic-related,” said Chief Chris T. McKenzie of the Carthage Police Department.

The link is the first investigators have revealed between the man, whom they identified as Robert Stewart, and the site of the rampage, although officials declined to discuss a precise motive.

“When can one look into the heart and mind of another person and truly know what they think?” Maureen Krueger, the Moore County district attorney, asked at an afternoon news conference. “The information on motive is incomplete at this time. We can share this: this was not a random act of violence.”

According to records at the Moore County Sheriff’s Department, Mr. Stewart’s wife, whose maiden name was Wanda Gay Neal, was taken from the nursing home to the hospital to see her husband after he was wounded by a police officer who responded to the shooting. The Associated Press, quoting a neighbor, said Ms. Neal worked at the nursing home as a nursing assistant.

Mr. Stewart will be charged with eight counts of first-degree murder, Ms. Krueger said. The victims ranged in age from Jerry Avant Jr., a 39-year-old nurse, to Louise DeKler, 98, who had enjoyed bowling well into her 80s. At least two people were killed as they sat in their wheelchairs, one witness said.

Mr. Stewart, 45, and Ms. Neal, 43, have a long history. They have married each other twice, the first time when she was 17. Within three years, they had divorced, but they remarried in 2002.

Ms. Neal had three other husbands in between. One was Kevin Luck, and some neighbors of the couple identified her as Wanda Luck, though it was not clear what name she currently uses. Mr. Stewart has been married four times. According to court papers, he is disabled and has an income of $786 a month.

A witness to the shooting, Michael Lee Cotten, said Mr. Stewart weighed about 300 pounds and was dressed in bib overalls.

In the days leading up to the shooting, Mr. Stewart was apparently down on his luck. “He seemed real depressed,” said Mack Hancock, who saw Mr. Stewart last week. Mr. Stewart said he had prostate cancer, Ms. Neal had left him, and “everything had gone to hell,” Mr. Hancock recalled.

Sue Griffin, who was married to Mr. Stewart for more than 15 years, until 2002, said she had noticed some unusual behavior recently. Ms. Griffin said that the two had not spoken since they split up, but that in recent days Mr. Stewart had tried to contact her through her mother, sister, son and neighbor. He told her son that he had cancer and “was planning on leaving town to visit places he hadn’t seen,” she said.

On Sunday morning, Mr. Cotten, 53, pulled into the parking lot of Pinelake Health and Rehab to visit his great-aunt. “The alleged suspect just leveled his weapon, which appeared to be a rifle or shotgun, at me in my vehicle and began shooting before I even came to a complete stop in the parking lot,” Mr. Cotten said.

The car windows were shattered, and Mr. Cotten was hit by a pellet in the left shoulder. “He was very calm, very deliberate; he looked right straight at me,” he said.

Mr. Cotten ran into the building, where he warned that shots had been fired before heading toward his aunt’s room. When he heard the gunman enter the building, he took refuge in a bathroom. “You could hear him coming down the hallway and just shooting randomly, and people hollering and screaming,” he said.

Then Justin Garner, the only police officer on duty that morning in Carthage, responded to an emergency call and entered the building alone, exchanging fire with the gunman, Chief McKenzie said at a news conference. Mr. Stewart suffered one gunshot wound to the upper torso, Chief McKenzie said, and Officer Garner was wounded by three pellets in the foot and leg.

“Whether or not he realizes it now, he will hopefully someday realize how many lives he actually saved,” Chief McKenzie said, speaking of Officer Garner.

He added that the police had recovered several weapons the gunman carried into the building.

On Monday, many of the victims’ families were still in shock. The family of Tessie Garner, 88, sat in folding chairs on a porch adorned with white flowers, crying and eating cake. Jim Foster declined to say much about his father-in-law, Jesse Musser, an 88-year-old retired railroad machinist, except that “he was a quiet man and a humble man.”

Traci Pennypacker, 43, said she had spent the day wondering why her aunt’s mother, Ms. DeKler, had died this way. “Had this not happened,” Ms. Pennypacker said, “I just can’t imagine that she wouldn’t have lived to be in her hundreds.”

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